In a communications network, an address is an identifier assigned to each device on the network. As applied to the Internet, a device's address is known generally as its “Internet Protocol address” (IP address), which is a numerical representation of the device's virtual location on the Internet. If the device hosts a website, the host device's IP address is used to locate the host device and provide access to content from the website. For example, the web domain google.com actually represents a numerical IP address, which could be, for example, 73.14.213.99. When web clients type in a domain name at their web browsers, a downstream DNS system matches or routes the entered domain name to an IP address, then uses the numerical IP address to locate and provide access to the host server device associated with that address.
A device's IP address is typically assigned to it by an entity in the network. For example, in a CDMA network the address assigning entity is the Packet Data Serving Node (PDSN). IP addresses may be assigned statically or dynamically. Static IP addressing schemes assign one IP address for one customer/device, and dynamic IP addressing schemes assign different IP addresses to a given customer/device at selected or random intervals. For example, some Internet Service Providers (ISP) assign a different IP address to a given customer each time the customer logs on to their computer. A website on a host device that has a static, unique IP address is accessed reliably and maintains stable client-server sessions. By contrast, under a dynamically assigned IP addressing scheme computers will likely have to share IP addresses with other computers on that network. Thus, hosting a website at a dynamically assigned IP address tends to compromise how reliably web clients can access the dynamically assigned address, as well as the stability of client-server sessions established between a web client and the dynamically assigned address.
It is desirable to provide a way to route web clients to a wider variety of web enabled computing devices, thereby allowing remote web-based access to content and features from a greater number of devices. More specifically, it would be advantageous to utilize dynamically addressed, mobile computing devices (e.g., mobile phones, PDAs, tablets and the like) as web servers that are accessible to a web client over an IP network with the same simplicity, stability and reliability that one might route to and access website content at a statically addressed web server. For example, as the technology of PDAs and smart phones improves, users store more and more information on these devices. The increase is both with respect to the quantity of the information and the range of its types. For example, types can include, but are not limited to, historical and current physical location, video, music and other multimedia files, word processing documents, and contact lists, as well as various interactive games.
However, as has been known to users and to persons of ordinary skill in the mobile device application arts, users that wish to share the information on their mobile devices have a limited set of options. The user can, for example, e-mail selected files to the intended recipients. The e-mail with its attachment(s) can then be sent through one or more of the mobile device's links to the Internet, for example through cellular wireless uplink to the cellular wireless network, and then through its interface to the Internet, or a Wi-Fi link to a local access point to the Internet. The e-mail attachment means of sharing files, however, can have substantial limitations. One such limitation is that it requires that the user have physical possession of the mobile device and, further, it generally requires direct action by the user, e.g., selecting and attaching the file, as well as filling in the addressee list of the e-mail message.
Alternatively, the user can post selected files from the user's mobile device to the user's social network page, e.g., Facebook® or MySpace®. However, employing these social networks as a means for sharing files on a user's mobile device has many of the same requirements, and limitations, as the e-mail sharing means. For example, every time the user decides to share a file that is only on his or her mobile device, the user must have physical possession of that device. It also requires that the user manually performs the uploading and posting of the files. In addition, social networks can impose limits on the kinds of files that can be accessed, as well as on the human interface mechanism. One conventional method for a mobile device user to share files stored on the device is to upload the selected files to a “cloud” disk, such as Apple® Mobile Me or Apple iCloud®, using for example the same links described for the social network posting. However, this method also requires that the user have physical possession of the mobile device every time he or she wishes to share a file.
The presence of a dynamic addressing scheme is a significant impediment to accessing content over an IP network from mobile computing devices such as mobile phones and wireless PDAs. As previously described, in networks such as CDMA, UMTS, GPRS, Wi-Fi and the like, mobile phones and wireless PDAs are not assigned static, routable IP addresses. Instead, their addresses are dynamically assigned and may change at regular or random times for any number of reasons primarily related to the network's requirements and the device's mobility and wireless connection. Because of the many complex and proprietary systems in IP and private networks, it is expected that attempts within or across such networks to access and retrieve content located at a dynamically addressed device would require considerable expense, engineering man-hours and design complexity, as well as access to and modification of proprietary systems such as DNS servers, custom gateways and complex tunneling configurations.
This disclosure describes various exemplary embodiments that provide, among other features and benefits, systems and methods to reliably route standard, off-the-shelf web clients to a device having an assigned address that can change. The disclosed embodiments can also, among other additional features and benefits, assist in minimizing expense, engineering man-hours, design complexity and the need for access to proprietary systems by utilizing commercially available, off-the-shelf systems, and making targeted and relatively easily implemented configurations within those commercially available, off-the-shelf systems.